Overview

This is the official podcast of Southwestern College, located in Chula Vista, CA. The podcast is a production of The Philosophy and Humanities Department. Central topics of discussion are popular culture and philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics (with a focus on consciousness and theology). However, we sometimes touch on local or national news as well as general issues in the discipline of philosophy. The official podcast logo was designed by Jason Vandusen.

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Episode 6

Episode 6 Description

In this episode, fellow philosophy professor Matt Wion and I discuss… death! Most people would say death is bad. But if we are not there to experience it, how can it be bad? Is it because we are deprived of life? But then, weren’t we deprived of life before we were born? Or, do we survive death in some other sense, like as a soul or a disembodied consciousness? But how is the soul connected to our brain activity? In order to understand death, it seems, we need to understand what we are—our personal identity. Throughout our discussion we touch on past lives, near death experiences, and more, addressing the arguments of thinkers such as Epicurus, Plato, and more.

Episode 5

Episode 5 Description

In this podcast, Jonathan Gingerich and I discuss a paper we were supposed to discuss at the American Philosophical Association (APA) Eastern Conference in Savannah. Jonathan has since had the paper published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. The general issue we discuss is, what makes games good? Responding to Thomas Hurka who argues that games’ goodness lies in their complexity, Jonathan’s paper argues that Hurka’s theory should be modified to account for the player’s experience of freedom as an intrinsic good. But what’s the most important part of the player’s experience of freedom? The freedom to play in the first place, or the freedom within the game? And how do the goals and/or rules of a game restrict or enhance the player’s freedom?

Episode 4

Episode 4 Description

In this episode, my girlfriend Lynn and I discuss the Louie CK scandal and several philosophical issues that arise from it, including consent and undue influence. This one cuts deep because Louie has been one of my favorite comedians for a long time, but what he did was wrong. We use some of the top comments on the original NY Times article (linked above) to guide our discussion.

We only post the most recent three episodes on this website. For all of our episodes, click the iTunes or Soundcloud link above.